Ice -- Wolv book II

15 - Broken

"Why not? I ate the bloody food too, Humfrey, no one made me do it. You certainly didn't."

"That's all I do, isn't it? I leave people! I'm too focused on myself. Why do I always have to prove myself? Why does it matter? AAAAH!!!" I screamed hysterically, feeling my gut wrench inside me. I don't want to do this, not again. I'd just reclaimed my wolven body days ago, and now, it was being snatched away from me again.

I lifted a paw up, watching in horror as the joints in my toes snapped and cracked, growing longer ever so slowly. Blood welled up in the back of my throat as my innards tore themselves to shreds, and I spat up onto the floor. My ribcage finally gave way, sliding around beneath my skin, splitting and morphing along the way.

"STOOOP!" I howled into the air, falling onto my back with a labored pant. My tongue was lolled carelessly out of my mouth, but like everything else, it too was changing, growing thicker and shorter. "No more! No more, please!"

"Humfrey!" Nadie whispered, visibly trembling on the other side of the bars. I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing the whiteness that had invaded my vision away, and looked up at her.

I could see the muscles on her legs twitching involuntarily, and her eyes were wild with terror, the fire that they'd contained just moments ago now extinguished by fear. A thin trail of blood ran out from the corner of her mouth.

I lifted what was left of my right foreleg up to her, and tried to shield her eyes. "Don't look!"

"I'm scared! I don't want to do this!" she backed away from me, pressing herself into the far wall of her cage. "I can't do this again!" Her body shook as though it was being struck by an unseen earthquake inside of her.

"Yes you cannnn......." my paw flopped down to the floor as my vision switched back to white nothingness.

My tail burned for a moment, than began hammering itself out of existance; each time a bone merged with another, it felt like my spine had been bludgeoned by a cudge.

Nadie let out a scream next to me, and abruptly pressed herself up against the divider in the middle of the cage.

"Please make this stop! Anyone, help me, please! No!"

I dragged myself next to the bars and reached my paw through, grabbing her own paw with my half-formed fingers.

"We can do this," I growled between clenched teeth. "We've been through worse!" I slammed my head against the metal as my muzzle began to crack and split. I felt her tail snap through the air above my head as she pulled away and turned around in a frantic circle, watching in horror as her body began to implode.

"Make it stop," she sobbed.

But I couldn't. I was utterly powerless; I was at my weakest in this moment, on clear display for her to see. I couldn't help her, I couldn't let her out, I couldn't make her pain go away. Things were only going to get worse for the both of us, and all we could do was watch each other slowly slip down into oblivion.

Her paw reached out through the bars, snatching mine back. Even though she still only had paws rather than hands, she wrapped her leg around mine, mustering an unbreakable grip. With every spasm of pain that shot through her, her grip only tightened; for a moment, I worried she would snap my foreleg in two.

I looked up at her through my bloodshot eyes, barely making out her face. Her wrist cracked and slid back beneath her fur, and her fingers began to stretch out.

"NOOOOO!" as she screamed, she dug her claws down into my arm, dragging them along its length and to my wrist, before she fell back in the cage, twisting and writhing beneath the transformation. I slumped forward, ignoring the blood that now ran down my arm.